UK & World News

Facebook Post Reveals Teen's Murder To Family

The parents of a south Georgia student found out from Facebook that their daughter had been killed at her university.

A family friend forwarded a post on the social networking site to 17-year-old Jasmine Benjamin's mother and stepfather just before Thanksgiving.

It was only later that same day, on November 18, that police officially informed Judith Brogdon and James Jackson that their daughter had died at Valdosta State University.

Mr Jackson slammed the college authorities in an interview with local TV station WGCL.

"For someone to be so insensitive not to reach out to the family, or not even to keep up with what's going on because it's a holiday and you're going away on vacation or whatever you're doing - it's very, very hurtful to say the least," he said.

Now the family, from Gwinnett County near Atlanta, is turning to social media to help solve the mystery of her death, which police are investigating as a homicide.

They have hired a private investigator to search the internet for clues, and a new Facebook site has been set up for fellow students to share information.

They are looking for "unusual comments or unusually timed comments about her death," their lawyer A Thomas Stubbs said.

"Anything that reveals a little more information than what's publicly known about her death, those are the kind of comments police are looking for as someone who might warrant a closer examination."

Police say they do not know for certain how the student died.

There were no obvious signs of a crime when her body was found, but the post-mortem examination raised questions, authorities said.